Anti-diffusion method for interface steepening in two-phase incompressible flow

In this paper, we present a method for obtaining sharp interfaces in two-phase incompressible flows by an anti-diffusion correction, that is applicable in a straight-forward fashion for the improvement of two-phase flow solution schemes typically employed in practical applications. The underlying discretization is based on the volume-of-fluid (VOF) interface-capturing method on unstructured meshes. The key idea is to steepen the interface, independently of the underlying volume-fraction transport equation, by solving a diffusion equation with reverse time, i.e. an anti-diffusion equation, after each advection time step of the volume fraction. As the solution of the anti-diffusion equation requires regularization, a limiter based on the directional derivative is developed for calculating the gradient of the volume fraction. This limiter ensures the boundedness of the volume fraction. In order to control the amount of anti-diffusion introduced by the correction algorithm we propose a suitable stopping criterion for interface steepening. The formulation of the limiter and the algorithm for solving the anti-diffusion equation are applicable to 3-dimensional unstructured meshes. Validation computations are performed for passive advection of an interface, for 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional rising-bubbles, and for a rising drop in a periodically constricted channel. The results demonstrate that sharp interfaces can be recovered reliably. They show that the accuracy is similar to or even better than that of level-set methods using comparable discretizations for the flow and the level-set evolution. Also, we observe a good agreement with experimental results for the rising drop where proper interface evolution requires accurate mass conservation.     

Anti-diffusion interface sharpening technique for two-phase compressible flow simulations

In this paper we propose an interface sharpening technique for two-phase compressible-flow simulations based on volume-of-fluid methods. The idea of sharpening the two-fluid interface is to provide a correction algorithm which can be applied as post-processing to the volume-fraction field after each time step. For this purpose an anti-diffusion equation, i.e. a diffusion equation with a positive diffusion coefficient, is solved to counter-act the numerical diffusion resulting from the underlying VOF discretization. The numerical stability and volume-fraction boundedness in solving the anti-diffusion equation are ensured by a specified discretization scheme. No interface reconstruction and interface normal calculation are required in this method. All flow variables are updated with the sharpened volume-fraction field for ensuring the consistency of the variables, and the update of the phase mass, momentum and energy is conservative. Numerical results for shock-tube and shock-bubble interactions based on the ideal-gas EOS and shock contact problems based on the Mie–Grüneisen EOS show an improved interface resolution. The large-scale interface structures are in good agreement with reference results, and finer small-scale interface structures are recovered in a consistent manner as the grid resolution increases. As compared with reference high grid-resolution numerical results based on AMR algorithms, the interface roll-up phenomena due to the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability and the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability are recovered reliably for shock-bubble interactions involving different ideal gases.     

A fluid-mixture type algorithm for barotropic two-fluid flow problems

Our goal is to present a simple interface-capturing approach for barotropic two-fluid flow problems in more than one space dimension. We use the compressible Euler equations in isentropic form as a model system with the thermodynamic property of each fluid component characterized by the Tait equation of state. The algorithm uses a non-isentropic form of the Tait equation of state as a basis to the modeling of the numerically induced mixing between two different barotropic fluid components within a grid cell. Similar to our previous work for multicomponent problems, see [J. Comput. Phys. 171 (2001) 678] and references cited therein, we introduce a mixture type of the model system that consists of the full Euler equations for the basic conserved variables and an additional set of evolution equations for the problem-dependent material quantities and also the approximate location of the interfaces. A standard high-resolution method based on a wave-propagation formulation is employed to solve the proposed model system with the dimensional-splitting technique incorporated in the method for multidimensional problems. Several numerical results are presented in one, two, and three space dimensions that show the feasibility of the method as applied to a reasonable class of practical problems without introducing any spurious oscillations in the pressure near the smeared material interfaces.     

Theory of the elastic anomalies in the invar alloy Fe3Pt

A quantitative theory of the elastic anomalies in the ordered Invar alloy Fe₃Pt is presented within the Stoner theory of band magnetism. It is shown that the instability of the magnetic moment on the iron atoms in the fcc lattice is directly responsible for the very marked softening of the shear elastic constants in addition to the observed anomalous volume expansion and forced volume magnetostriction. This is contrasted with the stable behaviour of the magnetic moment on an iron atom in the bcc lattice.     

A front-tracking/ghost-fluid method for fluid interfaces in compressible flows

A front-tracking/ghost-fluid method is introduced for simulations of fluid interfaces in compressible flows. The new method captures fluid interfaces using explicit front-tracking and defines interface conditions with the ghost-fluid method. Several examples of multiphase flow simulations, including a shock–bubble interaction, the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, the collapse of an air bubble in water and the breakup of a water drop in air, using the Euler or the Navier–Stokes equations, are performed in order to demonstrate the accuracy and capability of the new method. The computational results are compared with experiments and earlier computational studies. The results show that the new method can simulate interface dynamics accurately, including the effect of surface tension. Results for compressible gas–water systems show that the new method can be used for simulations of fluid interface with large density differences.     

Minimal Developmental Computation: A Causal Network Approach to Understand Morphogenetic Pattern Formation

What information-processing strategies and general principles are sufficient to enable self-organized morphogenesis in embryogenesis and regeneration? We designed and analyzed a minimal model of self-scaling axial patterning consisting of a cellular network that develops activity patterns within implicitly set bounds. The properties of the cells are determined by internal ‘genetic’ networks with an architecture shared across all cells. We used machine-learning to identify models that enable this virtual mini-embryo to pattern a typical axial gradient while simultaneously sensing the set boundaries within which to develop it from homogeneous conditions—a setting that captures the essence of early embryogenesis. Interestingly, the model revealed several features (such as planar polarity and regenerative re-scaling capacity) for which it was not directly selected, showing how these common biological design principles can emerge as a consequence of simple patterning modes. A novel “causal network” analysis of the best model furthermore revealed that the originally symmetric model dynamically integrates into intercellular causal networks characterized by broken-symmetry, long-range influence and modularity, offering an interpretable macroscale-circuit-based explanation for phenotypic patterning. This work shows how computation could occur in biological development and how machine learning approaches can generate hypotheses and deepen our understanding of how featureless tissues might develop sophisticated patterns—an essential step towards predictive control of morphogenesis in regenerative medicine or synthetic bioengineering contexts. The tools developed here also have the potential to benefit machine learning via new forms of backpropagation and by leveraging the novel distributed self-representation mechanisms to improve robustness and generalization.     

Hall effects on thermosolutal instability of a rotating plasma

Summary The thermosolutal instability of a rotating plasma in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field is studied to include the effects of Hall current. When the instability sets in as stationary convection for the case of no rotation, the Hall effects are found to be destabilizing. The stable solute gradient and rotation are found to have stabilizing effects. In the presence of rotation the Hall currents are found to be stabilizing forT ₁>M(1+x)². the case of overstability is also considered and it is shown that such solutions exist. The variation of the frequency with respect to the wave number at the neutral state is graphically shown. The authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Fingering instability in forward smolder combustion

We use numerical strategies to examine the linear and nonlinear stability of forward smolder waves in the framework of a simplified thermal–diffusive model, with the hydrodynamic effects completely filtered out. The configuration consists of a horizontal thin solid fuel, over which air blows in the same direction as the smolder front propagation. It is found that, in the absence of convective heat losses, the whole one-dimensional adiabatic solution branch is linearly stable; in contrast, when the convective heat loss effect is taken into account, fingering instability emerges provided the incoming air flow rate is within a narrow range near the one-dimensional extinction limit, a manifestation that is reminiscent of the familiar cellular instability occurring in the context of low-Lewis-number diffusion flames. Accordingly, the fingering instability herein identified in forward smolder combustion is purely thermal–diffusive in nature. Furthermore, a heuristic analysis by drawing an analogy with premixed flame suggests that the occurrence of such fingering instability is the joint consequence of the Lewis number effects and convective heat losses. It is proposed that a Hele–Shaw-type combustion channel may be adopted to experimentally reveal the fingering patterns predicted by current numerical simulations.     

Pattern formation,social forces,and diffusion instability in games with success-driven motion

A local agglomeration of cooperators can support the survival or spreading of cooperation, even when cooperation is predicted to die out according to the replicator equation, which is often used in evolutionary game theory to study the spreading and disappearance of strategies. In this paper, it is shown that success-driven motion can trigger such local agglomeration and may, therefore, be used to supplement other mechanisms supporting cooperation, like reputation or punishment. Success-driven motion is formulated here as a function of the game-theoretical payoffs. It can change the outcome and dynamics of spatial games dramatically, in particular as it causes attractive or repulsive interaction forces. These forces act when the spatial distributions of strategies are inhomogeneous. However, even when starting with homogeneous initial conditions, small perturbations can trigger large inhomogeneities by a pattern-formation instability, when certain conditions are fulfilled. Here, these instability conditions are studied for the prisoner’s dilemma and the snowdrift game. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that asymmetrical diffusion can drive social, economic, and biological systems into the unstable regime, if these would be stable without diffusion.     

激波作用下SF6气泡界面演化和射流发展的数值模拟

 数值研究了平面激波冲击氮气环境中SF₆气泡界面的Richtmyer-Meshkov不稳定性,重点关注其中的激波聚焦及射流的产生和发展过程。在入射激波马赫数为1.23的情况下,给出了压力、密度、数值纹影和涡量等物理量的演化图像,定量分析了流场中压力最大值、密度最大值、射流速度、环量和斜压力矩随时间的变化关系。计算结果表明,平面激波冲击SF₆气泡过程有很强的聚能效应,在气泡内部靠近下游极点处发生激波近似理想聚焦和点爆炸现象,直接导致出现二次波系以及向下游运动的细长射流结构。相比入射激波,二次波系产生斜压力矩和涡量的能力要弱得多。     

On the two-dimensional instability of square-wave detonations

In order to elucidate the basic mechanisms responsible for the cells developing on detonation fronts, the two-dimensional instability of planar Chapman-Jouguet detonations is studied by the use of a square-wave model. It has been shown that there are two main instability mechanisms: the high sensitivity of the heat release rate to temperature and the hydrodynamic effect arising from the interface (reaction front) subject to the influence of the deflection of streamlines across the perturbed shock. Since for ordinary gaseous detonations the density across the shock is very large, the instability related to this pure hydrodynamic effect is very strong. An exact dispersion relation is derived and it is shown that the instability of square-wave detonations is described by a differential-difference equation of advanced type, which has a set of an infinite number of unstable solution branches with the growth rate increasing with the number of modes. The nonlinear solution shows that the discontinuity develops from smooth initial data within a finite time. Therefore the results obtained from square-wave detonations cannot be applied directly to describe the observed instability patterns. By carrying out a Taylor development of the terms with advanced time, a dispersion relation of a polynomial form is obtained and the high-frequency instability is eliminated. On the basis of the linear results with a regular reaction model, a phenomenological nonlinear equation of the fourth order for the position of the detonation surface is obtained by carrying out a Taylor series development. One-dimensional numerical solution of the phenomenological nonlinear equation shows typical nonlinear phenomena such as periodic oscillation, period doubling and dynamic quenching.     

Effect of destabilizing fields on hydrodynamic instabilities in nematics

The effect of destabilizing fields on the roll instability (RI) threshold for shear flow and on the homogeneous instability (HI) threshold for plane Poiseuille flow of nematic HBAB (μ _s>0) is studied on the basis of the continuum theory of nematics for flow cells of infinite lateral width. It turns out that the critical shear rate and wave vector at RI threshold decrease with increasing destabilizing field but do not approach zero at the Freedericksz transition. However calculations show that beyond the Freedericksz threshold HI may be favourable over a range of destabilizing field with shear in the stabilizing role. For plane Poiseuille flow a similar analysis points to the existence of a HI threshold in the presence of destabilizing field beyond the Freedericksz threshold again with shear acting as a stabilizing field. These results are compared with theoretical results obtained previously for MBBA.     

Magnetorotational-type instability in Couette-Taylor flow of a viscoelastic polymer liquid

We describe an instability of viscoelastic Couette-Taylor flow that is directly analogous to the magnetorotational instability (MRI) in astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics, with polymer molecules playing the role of magnetic field lines. By determining the conditions required for the onset of instability and the properties of the preferred modes, we distinguish it from the centrifugal and elastic instabilities studied previously. Experimental demonstration and investigation should be much easier for the viscoelastic instability than for the MRI in a liquid metal. The analogy holds with the case of a predominantly toroidal magnetic field such as is expected in an accretion disk, and it may be possible to access a turbulent regime in which many modes are unstable.     

Precise determination of characteristic laser frequencies by an Er-doped fiber optical frequency comb

Femtosecond optical frequency combs correlate the microwave and optical frequencies accurately and coherently. Therefore, any optical frequency in visible to near-infrared region can be directly traced to a microwave frequency. As a result, the length unit "meter" is directly related to the time unit "second". This paper validates the capability of the national wavelength standards based on a home-made Er-doped fiber femtosecond optical frequency comb to measure the laser frequencies ranging from visible to near-infrared region. Optical frequency conversion in the femtosecond optical frequency comb is achieved by combining spectral broadening in a highly nonlinear fiber with a single-point frequency-doubling scheme. The signal-to-noise ratio of the beat notes between the femtosecond optical frequency comb and the lasers at 633, 698, 729, 780, 1064, and 1542 nm is better than 30 dB. The frequency instability of the above lasers is evaluated by using a hydrogen clock signal with a instability of better than 1×10^-13 at 1-s averaging time. The measurement is further validated by measuring the absolute optical frequency of an iodine-stabilized 532-nm laser and an acetylene-stabilized 1542-nm laser. The results are within the uncertainty range of the international recommended values. Our results demonstrate the accurate optical frequency measurement of lasers at different frequencies using the femtosecond optical frequency comb, which is not only important for the precise and accurate traceability and calibration of the laser frequencies, but also provides technical support for establishing the national wavelength standards based on the femtosecond optical frequency comb.     

Electromagnetic control of the instability in the liquid metal flow over a backward-facing step

The tile-type electromagnetic actuator (TEA) and stripe-type electromagnetic actuator (SEA) are applied to the active control of the perturbation energy in the liquid metal flow over a backward-facing step (BFS). Three control strategies consisting of base flow control (BFC), linear model control (LMC) and combined model control (CMC) are considered to change the amplification rate of the perturbation energy. CMC is the combination of BFC and LMC. SEA is utilized in BFC to produce the streamwise Lorentz force thus adjusting the amplification rate via modifying the flow structures, and the magnitude of the maximum amplification rate could reach to 6 orders. TEA is used in LMC to reduce the magnitude of the amplification rate via the wall-normalwise Lorentz force, and the magnitude could be decreased by 2 orders. Both TEA and SEA are employed in CMC where the magnitude of the amplification rate could be diminished by 3 orders. In other words, the control strategy of CMC could capably alter the flow instability of the liquid metal flow.     

Elastic behavior of amorphous-crystalline silicon nanocomposite: An atomistic view

In the context of mechanical properties, nanocomposites with homogeneous chemical composition throughout the matrix and the dispersed phase are of particular interest. In this study, the elastic moduli of amorphous-crystalline silicon nanocomposite have been estimated using atomistic simulations. A comparison with the theoretical model reveals that the elastic behavior is significantly influenced by the crystal-amorphous interphase. On observing the effect of volume-fraction of the crystalline phase, an anomalous trend for the bulk modulus is obtained. This phenomenon is attributed to the relaxation displacements of the amorphous atoms.     

MHD Wave Interaction within a Plasma Perturbed by Alfvén Waves

The interaction between fast magnetoacoustic waves within a plasma with periodical nonhomogeneities, perturbed by Alfvén waves has been studied. It has been ascertained the appearance of phenomena of a decay instability and an instability involving an increase of the amplitude oscillations. A study of the influence of perturbed plasma parameters on these instability phenomena has been made. It has been found that the optimal perturbing frequency for giving rise to the instability phenomenon is twice the frequency of fast magnetoacoustic waves.     

Modulational instability in one-dimensional saturable waveguide arrays: Comparison with Kerr nonlinearity

Discrete modulational instability within the first band of uniform one-dimensional waveguide arrays possessing a saturable self-defocusing nonlinearity is investigated in detail within the coupled mode approach. Explicit analytical results for both the threshold and the maximal gain of instability are compared with the corresponding data from waveguide arrays exhibiting Kerr nonlinearity. We find that saturation bounds the interval of existence of discrete modulational instability, stabilizes the frequency region of perturbations around ±π/2 and decreases both gain and critical spatial frequency of perturbations.